It is well known that bottles containing pharmaceutical solutions to be administered to patients intravenously are hung invertedly or upside-down from a hook of a stand or dolly. There are many types of hangers for hanging these intravenous (I.V.) bottles from the hook of the I.V. stand. The hangers should be convenient for medical staff to use by being easily attached to the I.V. bottle and engaged with the I.V. stand. Furthermore, as much medical equipment is dispensable, the hangers should be economically manufactured so as to be reasonably priced.
One example of a hanger for an I.V. bottle is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,460,143. This hanger is attached to an I.V. bottle by means of a heat-shrinkable resin film covering the bottom periphery of the I.V. bottle, and hangs the I.V. bottle by means of a suspending ring. The requirement that heat be applied to secure the film hanger to the I.V. bottle limits the application of this hanger and reduces its ease of use. Furthermore, the relatively complicated structure requires significant processing in the manufacture thereof, so that the overall cost is relatively high.
Another example of a hanger for I.V. bottles is a plastic bag hanger as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,495. An I.V. bottle is received upside-down in the bag with the neck of the I.V. bottle protruding out of an opening in the bottom of the bag. The bag is then hung on an I.V. stand by means of holes in the top of the bag. Although this hanger is relatively simple to use, it requires a substantial amount of plastic film to form the bag which, except for the neck of the I.V. bottle, completely encloses the I.V. bottle.
Still another example of a hanger for an I.V. bottle is disclosed in German Patent No. 36 31 021. This hanger is comprised of a body portion with adhesive which is adhered to an I.V. bottle and a pair of tongues which extend upward from the body portion. Each tongue has a slot to receive a hook of an I.V. stand. The tongues have adhesive strips at top portions thereof which adhere together when the I.V. bottle is suspended from the stand. Because of the shape of the hanger with the tongues extending from the body portion, during the manufacture of such a hanger a significant amount of material has to be cut away and discarded or recycled to be used again. Additionally, as the body portion significantly covers most of the I.V. bottle, it uses a large amount of material. The waste and excess of material result in a relatively high cost in producing the hanger. Further, the irregular configuration of the hanger indicates that the hangers could not readily be applied to I.V. bottles on a production line basis.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,125 discloses yet another example of a hanger for an I.V. bottle. This hanger includes a label which is adhered to an I.V. bottle and a hanging ring which hangs on a hook of an I.V. stand. The label is a composite of a layer of adhesive, a base layer of film, a layer of ink, a layer of adhesive, another layer of ink, and an outer layer of film. The hanging ring is cut into the label and though the outer layer of film and both layers of ink with the adhesive therebetween, such that the hanging ring is comprised of these said layers. Additionally, a release lacquer or coating is applied to the base layer of film so that the hanging ring is able to be pulled free from the base layer of film and consequently the label. It is noted that the manufacturing process of this hanger is relatively complicated in the use of two label layers as well as the backing sheet.
These examples of hangers for I.V. bottles illustrate diverse approaches to hanging an I.V. bottle from a hook of an I.V. stand. To summarize, the collective group of hanger arrangements appear to be unduly complex and/or costly to apply to I.V. bottles. Therefore, there remains a need in the art of hangers for I.V. bottles for a hanger which is easily applied to an I.V. bottle and which conserves material and processing steps in the manufacture thereof.